ACTION 6: Public Bodies will continue to push out e-payment facilities appropriate to their customers' requirements.

DAFM and the delivery of payments

( Action 6 - in progress )

The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine has established a strong track record in
delivering payments to farmers on time and through the utilisation of modern
information technology. It is committed to the continuous process of
improvement in managing payment schemes and will continue to integrate
applications and claim operations on the Generic Claims Processing System.
While recognising that for control purposes some elements have to remain
separate, nonetheless, new schemes such as AEOS, Organics and Bio-fuels will be
integrated as far as possible and the Department will continue to avoid the
duplication of effort on the part of applicants through the reuse of data and
through broadening service provision on line and through centralising schemes
and programmes and making payments by electronic fund transactions.

A continuous process of improvement in the efficiency of
payments to farmers and in the coordination of the inspection process is a key
priority. By taking advantage of the seasonality of certain schemes, the
Department will benefit from increased efficiency and realise staff and
administrative savings. Existing ICT systems, such as the generic process
driven AFIT and GCPS have been further extended to cater for additional
inspections and schemes.

1.Allow artists and the public submit funding applications
including all supporting materials online.

2.Allow payment requests to be made online with
relevant supporting materials.

3.Allow outside assessors access to applications
remotely and to submit their assessments online.

4.To eliminate physical filing of application and
payments support materials.

The system has been in place and functioning since
2010.We manage in excess of 140
separate grant schemes per year receiving approximately 3000 applications with
over 30,000 pieces of supporting material.Decision times have been significantly reduced as have internal
administration costs.The system is
built in such a way as to allow other public service agencies use it should
they choose.

The Department’s payment strategy, currently being drafted, envisages a payments environment which is 100% electronic. The overall objective of the strategy over the short to medium term is to modernise the Department’s payment delivery approach by progressively delivering payments to customers electronically and in a way that facilitates onward ePayments by the customer.

The scheme will provide for a partial rebate of oil tax in respect of auto-diesel used in qualifying motor vehicles to licenced Road Hauliers and Coach Operators. The proposed rebate will provide a significant boost to the industry, help sustain the number of businesses and support employment in the industry. The implementation solution includes online registration, electronic submission of returns, tax clearance validation, offsetting against other liabilities and refund processing. All claimants will register online and submit claims to Revenue from 1st July 2013. The electronic system will allow for automated processing of claims reducing staffing requirements to administer the scheme and will present opportunities for the risk analysis of claims against 3rd party data including Department of Transport licencing information and data from approved Fuel Card Providers.

SEPA (Single European Payments Area) is a European payments initiative which aims to create one single, integrated, standardised payments market in Europe. In line with Government commitments Revenue will upgrade its existing banking processes and systems to be SEPA compliant. All applications and interfaces within Revenue that capture, store and re-use Sort Code and Bank Account details for debit and credit payment purposes will be upgraded to use IBAN, BIC and unique Mandate IDs. This includes external facing e-payment systems used by Revenue’s customers.

The Home Renovation Incentive
(HRI) was announced in the Budget with a commencement date of 25th October
2013. The Incentive gives a tax credit equivalent to 13.5% of qualifying
expenditure on repairs, renovations or improvement works on a main residence.

The Incentive will be managed through an electronic
HRI system (no paper) where the contractor will enter details of the qualifying
works. Details of all payments must also be entered along with the VAT charged
and rate of VAT applicable. The homeowner can view details of works and
payments entered by the contractor and make the claim through the HRI site or
through ROS or PAYE Anytime. The online system will be available from late
March 2014. The tax credit, which is not refundable, can be claimed from 1st
January 2015 and will be granted in two equal instalments, for example in 2015
and 2016.

We encourage ePayments currently for Rents and Commercial Rates, with more planned. Through third parties we also encourage online payments for motor tax, non principal private residence charges, domestic waste water treatment systems registration, and the Household charge.

We extensively advertise online payments for NPPR, Domestic
Wastewater Registration and Household Charge. We have produced a simple video
to promote use of Motor Tax online specifically for non-technical users.

We promote and accept online payments for:

Household Waste Collection

Housing Loans (Waterford County Council and Dungarvan Town
Council)

Housing Rents (Waterford County Council and Dungarvan Town
Council)

Parking Fines (Waterford County Council, Dungarvan Town
Council and Tramore Town Council)

Offers the Customer the facility to pay online for a number of Council services incl. Parking Fines, Dog Licenses, Fire Service Charges. There are plans in progress to broaden the range of services for which the Customer can pay onlinee.g. Rates